Readout of Secretary Napolitano's Remarks at the Bureau of Justice Assistance National Conference

Release Date:

December 6, 2010

For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
Contact: 202-282-8010

Washington, D.C. - Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano today delivered remarks to more than 1,000 state and local criminal justice professionals at the 2010 Bureau of Justice Assistance National Conference - highlighting the critical role they play in protecting the nation through information-driven, community-based efforts such as the Nationwide Suspicious Activity Reporting (SAR) Initiative.

“Our adversaries are determined to strike us here at home and their tactics are constantly evolving—making our partners in state, local, and tribal law enforcement critical to our homeland security efforts,” said Secretary Napolitano. “DHS is committed to working with federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement throughout the country to share and leverage information, training and resources in order to protect against terrorism, crime and other threats.”

During her remarks, Secretary Napolitano highlighted the work of DHS and its federal partners to utilize the national network of fusion centers and community-oriented initiatives to strengthen the capacity of frontline personnel to understand, recognize, document, and share information about terrorism and other threats.

She also discussed DHS’ close collaboration with the Department of Justice to expand the Nationwide SAR Initiative—an administration effort to train state and local law enforcement to recognize behaviors and indicators related to terrorism, crime and other threats; standardize how those observations are documented and analyzed; and expand and enhance the sharing of those reports with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and DHS. Currently, 24 jurisdictions—including 11 states—are participating in the SAR initiative.

Additionally, Secretary Napolitano underscored the national expansion of DHS’ “If You See Something, Say Something” campaign—a simple and powerful tool to raise public awareness of indicators of terrorism, crime and other threats and emphasize the importance of reporting suspicious activity to the proper law enforcement authorities.